Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul, Final update

With all the parts together now all I have to do is put it all back together. Life is never that simple though, the pointers for the Vol/Tone controls don’t fit the pots’.  Not a big problem, I just need to file the hole out a little. With the new pots’ fitted, wire them all […]

Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul, 1st update

Got the frets polished… Next I turned my attention to that broken nut.  I used a grinding disk to cut a bone blank to the required size… It’s a fiddley job which I rather hate, the job is easy, it’s just the smell of grinding bone, like working in a slaughter-house! yuk. It needs a […]

Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul

This one is going to take a while, I like a challenge now and then!  It’s perhaps going to take longer than I thought but since it’s a quality guitar it shouldn’t be too difficult. The guitar with the new parts… Along with the new parts it also needs a little bit of TLC, the […]

Fender Telecaster setup

A quiet day in the workshop today, a couple of odd bits and bobs.  Did have a rather nice Tele’ in need of a setup.  Nothing really wrong with it, just needs a tweek here and there. The neck set was a little high, so about a 1/4 turn on the truss-rod. The action at […]

Jazzmaster Build – Final update

At last the pickups have arrived so I’m on the final lap.  The only problem is, they don’t fit! The standard covers the pickups came with are designed to mount differently. The pole pieces are slightly closer together… The covers have 4 holes for mountings but the pickups have 2, one at each end.. All I can […]

Gibson Les Paul Finished

With the cleanup finished all that’s needed now is to put it all back together and set it up.  First then the curve in the neck. It had a little too much of a bend so I tightened the truss rod a little… I had a look at the action at the 1st fret, it’s […]

Gibson Les Paul, Fret-dress and general tidy up

Just a little bit of housekeeping, tidying up a rather “road worn” Gibson Les Paul.  It’s been well used and someone has made a few modifications.  It’s been modified with some very fancy “auto tuning” machine heads but the owner want’s them replacing with standard ones.  Keep an eye open as they will be re-appearing […]

Jazzmaster Build – 3rd update

I didn’t manage as much as I wanted today, it’s been another of those days.  However I did finish the wiring, apart from the pickups which are on order…. It fits in place anyway. While I’m waiting for the last of the parts (tremolo tail and pickups) there isn’t a great deal more I can […]

Telecaster Custom – Rebuild 6th update

Well I finally think I’ve got it worried.  I did hope to have it finished this afternoon but then, what was I thinking, anything on this guitar was always going to take twice as long as planned! Next then the neck picukup cavity.  Needs to ba at least this much bigger… With a small router […]

Epiphone Les Paul – Setup

The first step is to check the amount of curve in the neck.  It should bend up slightly and is measured half way along the neck using a notched straight edge and a feeler gauge. The tension in the strings pulls the head up, increasing the curve.  This tension is balanced against the truss-rod which […]